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by Charlie Wolcott

The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way aright,
But the wicked will fall by his own wickedness.
The righteousness of the upright will deliver them,
But the unfaithful will be caught by their lust.
~ Proverbs 11:5-6

When I read through Proverbs again recently, this passage stood out. Those who live righteous lives will have their paths made clear for them. The righteous are going to know what to do and when to do it when the time comes. There are many wrong ways to do things, and the righteous will not choose any of those paths. They will walk the straight and narrow. They will do their duty and will never have to worry about watching their backs for their wrong choices to haunt them.

The wicked, however, do not have this luxury. Sure, they may seem to thrive for a season, but they are always watching their backs. Whether they recognize it or not, they constantly have a tingling in the back of their head that someone is watching them and going to end their parade. As society falls deeper and deeper into depravity, the wicked feel empowered to where they can press the envelope further and think of the “lesser crimes” as being nothing. However, they will fall on their own by their own folly. In all their attempts to do wicked deeds, they will trip over themselves.

We need to understand that the wicked are not merely those who are tyrants, bullies, murderers, thieves, rapists, etc. “The wicked” does include those things, but it also includes those who truly try to do things “rightly” but in their own way. We need to understand that all those villains we love to hate actually think they are doing the right thing. There are only a few of them that know they are doing evil and love doing it anyway. Those who commit the white lies, cheat the system a little bit, copy answers for an exam, sneak a little candy from the store, watch a little snuff – that is all sin and wickedness. The main difference between the “small crimes” and the “big crimes” is how loose that sin’s leash is. If there were no real known consequences for sin, we’d all be turned loose, and we’d have destroyed ourselves a long time ago. It is only when God puts the clamps down on sin that it is restrained.

“The righteousness of the upright will deliver them.” Deliver them from what? The traps of the wicked. The wicked cannot stand having the righteous near them. Why? Even if the righteous don’t say anything, their actions will convict the wicked that what they are doing is wrong. Because they are cheating the system, and they are seeing someone using the system correctly, they feel inferior, and so they want to take that person out. They desire to put some dirt in their eye or do something to get them to do something wrong just to make them feel better. So while the righteous do not have to watch their backs for the law to come down on them, they must certainly act with sharp eyes and discernment because of the enemy seeking to take them down a notch.

But for the wicked, it will all come back on them. The very traps they set will be the traps they fall into. The Bible gives two notable examples of this: Haman in the book of Esther and the bulk of the government structure of Persia during Daniel’s time. Haman hated Mordecai because Mordecai would not give him the attention he wanted, so Haman sought to kill all the Jews starting with Mordecai. Those familiar with the story will recall how Esther, Mordecai’s niece, was the queen and vouched for the Jews. Haman was busted and was hung on the very noose he was prepared to hang Mordecai on. In Daniel’s time, Daniel was such a man of prayer that the other prime ministers and princes, the rulers of the Persian Empire, sought to bring him down and get him thrown into the lions’ den. Daniel didn’t budge; he prayed anyway, was tossed down into the den, but was spared. The king realized what was going on and had all those who plotted against Daniel thrown into the den themselves. They didn’t even make it to the ground before lion’s tore them apart.

God is going to preserve His people and only let them be touched for a certain time, a certain purpose, and to a certain limit. Think of Jesus. There were numerous attempts on His life, but nothing could actually touch Him until it was time for Him to surrender and give His life on the cross. As long as the righteous continue to seek after righteousness and constantly stay alert, they will not stumble and fall. They will be attacked and harassed and hindered, but they will not stumble. Each attempt to stop them will only make them stronger.

There is one thing the righteous can do to readily keep themselves strong and alert: to not keep company with the wicked. I am not talking about Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, treating them like real people and working toward their conversion. But rather I am talking about Psalm 1:1: the blessed man does not dwell in the house of the wicked, and they do not take council with the scornful nor sit in the seat of mockers. They give the wicked no credence nor approval in what they do, nor do they join hands with them. Working on a civil project together may be one thing, but the righteous do things the right way and do not take part in the coarse discourse of the wicked, the crude joking, the plots to steal away some of the company’s goods, etc.

Walk the righteous path. It will be difficult! There will be many distractions and many lures to pull you off that path. It will likely be a lonely path, but we must do the right thing even if there is a cost to it. The cost for doing the right thing is nothing compared to the cost for doing the wrong thing. Let the wicked target you all they want, then remember the psalmist who said his joy was renewed when he entered the House of the Lord and remembered the destination of the wicked. The righteous will prosper, even through hardship. The wicked will perish and everything they gain through deception will be taken from them.

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